1.26.2006

Disturbing conversation with Keith Sonnier

Sculpture magazine January/February 2006

...the way you incorporate whatever you find around you. Is that an accurate assessment?
KS: Anybody who is worth their grain of salt has to use the world around them. An artist's responsibility is to ACCULTURATE the world. That's what one does. And you can't do it properly without some kind of "form Language" - without some kind of system of reading and looking at the world. The better equipped you are to ACCULTURATE, the better reading you can give of the world around you.


...

How do you see art in relation to Language?

KS: I think that the works are about perception, but I also think that there are many ways to "read". I'm fascinated by language, but I believe we need to think of it in a much more contemporary sense. The written word is no longer just the written word. There’s the spoken word, there's the picture. Because of technology, we now have a very short-circuited kind of language - a layered language - and I think that's what I like my words to do. I like to think that this is how people perceive. That's why I became interested in the media, I think, because of new language base.



The first quote just shot-circuits my brain... I think I disagree... but I like the feeling I get from his words (maybe it’s because I use found objects).

The second quote is the answer to a problem I was having while trying to put together my Thesis topic (Eclectic Reflections on Language and the Experience of Art) with my 3D practice.

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